Suddenly “a guy pretending to be mitt Romney stood on a stage next to me” a few days ago in Denver and pretended that such a tax cut isn’t his plan – “Pay no attention to that tax cut behind the curtain.”

“You didn’t know this but for all you moms and kids out there you should have confidence that finally, someone is cracking down on Big Bird. Elmo has been seen in a white Suburban, he’s headed for the border. Oscar is hiding out in his trash can… Gov. Romney’s plan is to let Wall Street run wild again, but he’s going to bring the hammer down on Sesame Street.”

At the debate, “what was being presented (by Romney) was not leadership, it was salesmanship.”

Romney today said ending the war in Iraq as we did was a mistake. “I disagree – bringing our troops home was the right thing to do,” he said, and we have to serve our returning veterans as well as they served us.

Gov. Romney says it’s fair that he pays less than a teacher making $50,000 a year, Obama said. “Don’t boo – vote!”

“That’s what change was about – you, all of us, coming together.”

“We cannot afford to be complacent and we cannot afford to be cynical. We’ve got to look back at the progress we’ve made and that should give us confidence.”

“Change takes time. We always said it would take more than one term or even one president. We said it would take more than one party. And by the way, no, it doesn’t just take me. That is not the deal. The deal is, it takes all of us.”

It won’t happen with “somebody who writes off half the nation before he even takes office, but it also doesn’t happen if half the nation writes itself off by not participating.”

“I’m not fighting for Democratic jobs or Republican jobs, I’m fighting for American jobs.”

The president left the stage at 9:57 p.m. to a thunderous ovation and Bruce Springsteen’s “We Take Care of Our Own.”

Josh Richman

Josh Richman covers state and national politics for the Bay Area News Group.
A New York City native, he earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri and reported for the Express-Times of Easton, Pa. for five years before coming to the Oakland Tribune and ANG Newspapers in 1997.
He is a frequent guest on KQED Channel 9’s “This Week in Northern California;” a proud father; an Eagle Scout; a somewhat skilled player of low-stakes poker; a rather good cook; a firm believer in the use of semicolons; and an unabashed political junkie who will never, EVER seek elected office.